34
Judgment on the Nations
1 Come near, O nations, to listen;
pay attention, O peoples.
Let the earth hear, and all that fills it,
the world and all that springs from it.
2 The LORD is angry with all the nations
and furious with all their armies.
He will devote them to destruction;* Forms of the Hebrew cherem refer to the giving over of things or persons, either by destroying them or by giving them as an offering; also in verse 5.
He will give them over to slaughter.
3 Their slain will be left unburied,
and the stench of their corpses will rise;
the mountains will flow with their blood.
4 All the stars of heaven will be dissolved.
The skies will be rolled up like a scroll,
and all their stars will fall
like withered leaves from the vine,
like foliage from the fig tree.
Judgment on Edom
(Isaiah 21:11–12)
5 When My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens,
then it will come down upon Edom,
upon the people I have devoted to destruction.
6 The sword of the LORD is bathed in blood.
It drips with fat—
with the blood of lambs and goats,
with the fat of the kidneys of rams.
For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 And the wild oxen will fall with them,
the young bulls with the strong ones.
Their land will be drenched with blood,
and their soil will be soaked with fat.
8 For the LORD has a day of vengeance,
a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.† Or of recompense for (Edom’s) hostility against Zion.
9 Edom’s streams will be turned to tar,
and her soil to sulfur;
her land will become a blazing pitch.
10 It will not be quenched—day or night.
Its smoke will ascend forever.
From generation to generation it will lie desolate;
no one will ever again pass through it.
11 The desert owl and screech owl will possess it,
and the great owl and raven will dwell in it.‡ The precise identification of these birds is uncertain.
The LORD will stretch out over Edom
a measuring line of chaos
and a plumb line of destruction.
12 No nobles will be left to proclaim a king,
and all her princes will come to nothing.
13 Her towers will be overgrown with thorns,
her fortresses with thistles and briers.
She will become a haunt for jackals,§ Or serpents or dragons
an abode for ostriches.* Literally for daughters of an ostrich or for daughters of an owl
14 The desert creatures will meet with hyenas,
and one wild goat will call to another.
There the night creature † Hebrew Lilith will settle
and find her place of repose.
15 There the owl will make her nest;
she will lay and hatch her eggs
and gather her brood under her shadow.
Even there the birds of prey will gather,
each with its mate.
16 Search and read the scroll of the LORD:
Not one of these will go missing,
not one will lack her mate,
because He has ordered it by His mouth,
and He will gather them by His Spirit.
17 He has allotted their portion;
His hand has distributed it by measure.
They will possess it forever;
they will dwell in it from generation to generation.
*34:2 Forms of the Hebrew cherem refer to the giving over of things or persons, either by destroying them or by giving them as an offering; also in verse 5.
†34:8 Or of recompense for (Edom’s) hostility against Zion.
‡34:11 The precise identification of these birds is uncertain.
§34:13 Or serpents or dragons
*34:13 Literally for daughters of an ostrich or for daughters of an owl
†34:14 Hebrew Lilith